1333 FSB CPU with DDR2-800 RAM? How?

[Chicken76]

I have this motherboard: Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2C
and this CPU: Intel Celeron 430
I have 2 modules of 2 GB DDR2-800 RAM each.

I want to buy a better CPU as this one, even overclocked to 2.7GHz is a bit slow.
The motherboard's specs say it supports CPUs with 1333 FSB. However, when overclocking my current CPU from 200 MHz (800) FSB to 300 (1200), I had to use the lowest available multiplier to keep the memory running at 800. (see screenshots)

So my question is, if I put a CPU with 1333 FSB, is it possible to run it with my current ram, or would I need to buy DDR2-1066 RAM?

 

[Insert_Nickname]

The direct answer to your question is that your board apparently lacks the proper memory divider for the combination of 1333FSB/800MHz RAM, forcing you to run the memory at 1066MHz.

Right, on to the next more serious part. You should under no circumstances spend any more money on that PC. Instead you should begin saving for a new one, as your current Celeron is only a single-core. That is just not going to cut it anno 2015. If money is tight, see if you can find a decent used Q6600, Q8xxx or Q9xxx. That will be a far more effective upgrade then trying to overclock that poor single core Celeron...

 

[Lorne]

Memory speed is run by the northbridge not the CPU clock, So two different clock dividers.
Drop in new CPU, Reset bios (and adjust as needed) and go.

Some cheap 800mhz ddr2 can be clocked to 1066 with the voltage upped between 1.9-2.1, That's really hit and miss.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I agree with all of the posters.

I'm retiring all the LGA-775 systems in our house, one by one -- one down, one to go. And those are C2D systems, one of them a Gigabyte board with the NVidia 610i chipset.

Getting the RAM clock "right" always required some arithmetic and a choice of ratios to match a CPU clock speed to the RAM.

Last year (almost exactly a year), I found a Q6600 described as an "OEM 'pull'" for about $90. In my case, I was using old parts to construct a home-server box, and I intend to squeeze a few more years out of it. The replacement, however, is already on the drawing-board.

I think the outfit which sold me that processor was "SuperBiz."

For a workstation, I wouldn't bother with any such replacement. If you don't want "latest and greatest" you could probably find an Ivy Bridge quad-core -- used, OEM-pull, "tray/OEM," possibly even a retail-box -- but look for a price around $100. You could find a refurb Z77 board for as little as $100. 8GB of 2x4 RAM DDR3 -- maybe $50.

But you'd be lucky to get all those parts for less than $250, and you'd be better off finding Haswell parts and using that money to finance it. Consider all the options: ~$90 for a used Q6600 (if available), versus the IB-gen parts ~$250 (if available), and maybe $450+ for Haswell core components.

In any case, you'd also want to buy a new PSU for your system, if the old one was only "new" when the Celeron was purchased. So figure another $50 to $100 on that, and I wouldn't "scrimp" on PSU outlays, unless you're getting a "Gold" or "Platinum" model with a lower power-output rating between 350 and 450W.

And now, I have to figure out what I'm going to do with these surplus DDR2 kits from the decommissioned LGA-775s.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

But you'd be lucky to get all those parts for less than $250, and you'd be better off finding Haswell parts and using that money to finance it. Consider all the options: ~$90 for a used Q6600 (if available), versus the IB-gen parts ~$250 (if available), and maybe $450+ for Haswell core components.

Are used Q6600's still going for $90? Ouch. Granted, not being American I don't have much feel with US pricing, but converting that into my local currency, it sounds a little on the expensive side for what you get.

For a daily driver machine it doesn't even have to be that fancy. Even the lowest-end Athlon 5350/Celeron J1900 is better then that Celeron 440.

 

[Burpo]

Nah, they're like $20 now..
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Xeon-X3220-...159?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35e71a315f

 

[Chicken76]

Thanks guys. I just committed to a Q6600 on Ebay for 35 euros delivered.

Do you think I'll experience a noticeable decrease in performance in single-threaded tasks compared to the current Celeron, considering it's overclocked higher than Q6600's stock? (2.7 vs 2.4 GHz)

Also, do you think an overclock to the Q6600 is feasible on this board? I'm looking at the power delivery area and I'm not impressed.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Are used Q6600's still going for $90? Ouch. Granted, not being American I don't have much feel with US pricing, but converting that into my local currency, it sounds a little on the expensive side for what you get.

For a daily driver machine it doesn't even have to be that fancy. Even the lowest-end Athlon 5350/Celeron J1900 is better then that Celeron 440.

Apparently the OP found one for MUCH less.

There was a time -- maybe a couple years ago or before that -- when they "just dropped off the map" unless you were looking for "used" offerings from individuals at EBay, but I'd become too used to buying from the various resellers. I was building or "rebuilding" my server on an old 680i motherboard, and the total outlay -- excluding the $400-worth of 2TB NAS drives -- was about $220 with the Q6600 as part of it, the remainder in PCI-E SATA controllers. After transitional experiments with the nForce controller which was not AHCI compliant, I chose to just turn it off.

At least SuperBiz had thoroughly tested the Q6600, was candid about its prior history, and had a return/refund policy. But -- yeah -- I might have done better.

I forgot to say I was having a problem with the E8400 it replaced: one core was loading up with 100% usage all the time. I think I ordered the quad-core as I continued to trouble-shoot. It turned out that it was a driver conflict -- one of which was the nForce driver. I uncovered the problem with a little utility called Latency-Mon. And that discovery occurred only after I'd replaced the C2D with the C2Q.

More incredible, it only required an installation of the PCI-E controller -- without drives connected to it! -- to eliminate the conflict. Lesson: we may "save" by using old hardware, but we "spend" in our obsession to make it work properly.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Thanks guys. I just committed to a Q6600 on Ebay for 35 euros delivered.

Seems like a decent deal. Glad to help out.

For you next upgrade consider a cheap SSD. That will make an older system like yours seem brand new.

There was a time -- maybe a couple years ago or before that -- when they "just dropped off the map" unless you were looking for "used" offerings from individuals at EBay, but I'd become too used to buying from the various resellers. I was building or "rebuilding" my server on an old 680i motherboard, and the total outlay -- excluding the $400-worth of 2TB NAS drives -- was about $220 with the Q6600 as part of it, the remainder in PCI-E SATA controllers. After transitional experiments with the nForce controller which was not AHCI compliant, I chose to just turn it off.

At least SuperBiz had thoroughly tested the Q6600, was candid about its prior history, and had a return/refund policy. But -- yeah -- I might have done better.

I forgot to say I was having a problem with the E8400 it replaced: one core was loading up with 100% usage all the time. I think I ordered the quad-core as I continued to trouble-shoot. It turned out that it was a driver conflict -- one of which was the nForce driver. I uncovered the problem with a little utility called Latency-Mon. And that discovery occurred only after I'd replaced the C2D with the C2Q.

More incredible, it only required an installation of the PCI-E controller -- without drives connected to it! -- to eliminate the conflict.

Yup, nForce boards did indeed have "temper"...

Lesson: we may "save" by using old hardware, but we "spend" in our obsession to make it work properly.

Agreed. But it feels good to re-purpose older hardware.